The US and Israel are 'of the same mind' when it comes to opposition to any Iranian military presence in Syria, US Ambassador David Friedman told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview this week.

A senior Israeli official has issued a warning to Russia that the Israeli military will bomb Syrian President Bashar Assad's palace in Damascus if Russia allows Iran to make military advances in Syria.

The UN has awarded contracts worth tens of millions of dollars to people closely associated with the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, as part of an aid program that critics fear is increasingly at the whim of the government in Damascus, a Guardian investigation has found.

More than 40 Syrian insurgent groups including the powerful Islamist faction Ahrar al-Sham have called on regional states to forge an alliance against Russia and Iran in Syria, accusing Moscow of occupying the country and targeting civilians.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously agreed Friday to establish a joint investigation mechanism to identify perpetrators of chlorine and other toxic chemical attacks in Syria. It is the first time the council has sought to establish accountability for such attacks in Syria.

President Barack Obama is seeking $500 million from Congress to train and equip "vetted" Syrian rebels as the White House seeks ways to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in the region.

The United States trained members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Greater Syria) (ISIS) at a secret base in Jordan to combat Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces in Syria. Now, those same forces are fighting in Iraq, according to World Net Daily.

Opposition figures have accused the Syrian regime of hiding chemical weapons in remote Alawite regions of northwestern Syria, defying its international commitment to eliminate its chemical stockpile by the end of June.

Using the Twitter social networking site, Lebanon's March 14 General Secretariat Coordinator warned Christians that backing President Bashar al-Assad would backfire on their own communities, according to NOW news.

In the battle for Syria between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and rebel jihadist factions, violent contests for the control of small Christian villages are often under-reported by the mainstream media.

Just as he issued an historic invitation to PLO chief Yasser Arafat, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad has said that war with Israel is a distinct possibility, that Israel would be on the losing side in the long term, and that "the Oslo Accords no longer exist."

While recent reports of a sudden lapse in the health of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein may be unfounded, Iraq's decades of ailing relations with Syria appear on the mend under the new boss in Damascus, Bashar al-Assad.